I do not own Lilo and Stitch. Pleakley is one of my fav characters along with Jumba, Lilo, Reuben and Gantu.

Trust Me

"We are most definitely going to die. Death is near! Death is-"

Lilo clamped a hand over Pleakley's mouth and shushed him. "This is no time to panic! We have to be calm, think this through."

The eight-year-old surveyed the situation before them, and had to admit it wasn't good. They were trapped in a small crevice in the rocky cliffs, a roaring river of water rushing down below. Lilo glanced nervously at the spiky rocks that surrounded the foot of the cliff and squealed in disgust at the sudden wet sensation on her hand. "You licked me!"

Pleakley glared, wiping the trickle of saliva off his lip and shrunk back against the sharp rocks as another tremor shook the land. "Not good! Not good at all! This is all your fault!"

Lilo scowled, rounding on the Plorgonarian she was trapped with. "My fault? How is this my fault?"

"If you hadn't dragged me along to catch that little monster Jumba created, I would be safe at home knitting right now!"

Okay, so it had been her fault. But only a little. She had been walking along the beach when she spotted Experiment 333, a small and squat alien covered in long purple hair. Of course, she had decided to name it Hairy. She had tried catching it, but it escaped into the thick forest. Stitch was ill, and Jumba was busy taking care of his little experiment. So, Pleakley had been drafted.

They had chased Hairy all through the forest and across the vast island, only to end up scaling the cliffs in pursuit. They had paused in that exact crevice for a rest, and that was when the earthquake started.

"I hope Hairy's all right," Lilo thought aloud.

Pleakley gaped at her. "We are about to die, and you are worrying about the little monster?"

"He is not a monster! He just hasn't learned to be good yet."

"It shoots toxic hairballs that can make a person blind!"

Lilo grinned. "I know! It's so cool."

Pleakley slumped back against the rocks, closing his eye and rubbing his temples. Why had he agreed to help Lilo catch one of Jumba's horrifying experiments? It always ended badly. Stitch just had to get sick on today of all days.

Another violent shake jerked the island, and Lilo whimpered involuntarily. Without thinking, Pleakley reached out and pulled her closer as pebbles started falling off the top of the formation and splatter into the jerking waves below. Lilo hung on to him, snuggling closer. Pleakley glanced down at her. "Hey, shouldn't you be comforting me?"

Lilo smiled softly. The earthquake seemed to die down, but tremors were still quivering. An idea crossed her mind and she crawled closer to the edge of the crevice, only to have Pleakley pull her back firmly. "What do you think you're doing?"

"Getting out of this deathtrap." Lilo broke free of his grip and peered down the edge. A large clump of trees nearly stretched to their safe zone, and crawling along the branches like snakes were green vines.

Hmm...

Pleakley glanced nervously at the grin that spread across Lilo's face. He smoothed out his brown T-shirt and adjusted the brown explorer's hat that sat perched on his cranium. "Lilo, what-"

Lilo pointed down to the trees below. "We need to jump."

There was a beat of silence.

"Are you crazy?"

Lilo frowned determinedly. "No. We can't climb down, because we have no way to reach land because of those pointy rocks. If we jump, we can grab onto one of the vines and swing to safety."

Pleakley placed his hands on his narrow hips. "Annnnd if we miss?"

Lilo thought for a minute. "Well. I suppose we'll land in the water below and swim. Can you swim?"

"No, I cannot."

"Oh. Well, I'm sure we won't miss."

Pleakley shook his small head. "No way. We are going to stay here until the little blue monster of Jumba's comes to rescue us from this perilous situation."

He sat back down, and Lilo glanced back towards the forest before placing herself beside Pleakley. After a long silence, she spoke.

"Remember when you carried me outside before the gun could explode and destroy the house?"

Pleakley smiled slightly, knowing exactly what she was talking about. It seemed so long ago. "Yes. I don't think I'll ever forget that."

"When I asked about Stitch, you told me to trust you. That it wasn't going to end well. And you were right. The whole house exploded, and you saved me. At the time, I thought you were the enemy, and thought you were crazy when you asked me to trust you. But now, I do trust you. I would do whatever you asked me to do because I know you would never try to do anything that would hurt me."

Lilo stood in front of Pleakley, smiling. "Do you trust me?"

Pleakley stared into those bright brown eyes. And he realized something. He did trust the insane little girl that caught dangerous experiments for fun and whose best friend was an alien. Perhaps he had finally gone crazy. He sighed and couldn't help but smile. "Yes. I do trust you."

Grinning widely, Lilo grabbed hold of Pleakley's hand and hauled him to the edge of the crevice. "Okay. All you have to do is jump. I'll do the rest. Just hang on tight!"

Pleakley shivered in fear as Lilo climbed onto his back and wrapped her small legs around his skinny torso. He glanced down as the dark waves crashed into the sharp rocks below.

"All right, Pleakley. Jump!"

Pleakley aimed for the clump of stooped trees that dotted the shore near the crevice. The black waves of death zoomed towards him, and he squeezed his eye shut. An agonizing second passed, and his flimsy body jerked violently.

"Yes!"

Pleakley opened his eye and tried to peer upwards. Lilo was gripping a vine tightly between both hands, a triumphant smile on her face. The swung safely to the ground, which Pleakley kissed happily. Lilo wrinkled her nose and shook her head. "It's a good thing you don't have any bones in your body, or that might have been a lot more difficult."

The sky was a clear blue, and Lilo scanned their surroundings. The area was thick with large palm trees and other greenery. The rocky cliff and pounding waves were a short distance away. "Well, I guess we'll have to walk home."

Lilo started forward, and yelped when her sandal-covered foot struck a root sticking out of the hard earth. She toppled to the ground, and a red device fell from her pocket and clattered by Pleakley's feet. He picked it up and studied it.

"Lilo."

Lilo tensed, picking herself up and brushing her black hair behind her ears. His voice was a deadly calm. Normally, when someone spoke to her like that, it meant she was in capitol T trouble. "Y-yeah?"

"Have you had this in your pocket the entire time?"

Lilo paled slightly as Pleakley held up a communicator. "Er, I kinda...forgot I had it."

"We just risked our lives jumping from a twenty foot high cliff, when you could have simply called Jumba and the little monster for help?"

"Y-yeah."

Lilo backed up, brown eyes wide as the noodle alien slowly advanced towards her. For such a spineless creature, he sure was intimidating.

"Pleakley, think of the bonding we just shared! And my plan worked, didn't it? Come on, it was an accident! Nani will kill you if anything happens to me! Pleakley...Pleakley!"